Ugly Duckling Winter Vegetables Get a Makeover

A good makeover scene can make a movie (see: “Pretty Woman,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” and “Student Exchange,” which we watched for the duration of the 1987 calendar year). A bad one (three words: “She’s All That”) can rile and rancor.

We’ve nominated some of the season’s homeliest vegetables for transformations. Some fall into jolie laide territory; part of us would like to see them stay their odd, alien selves. But if you’ve got kids who scare easily or want to apply the Hollywood rubric in its least Pygmalion form, give those vegetables a makeover. With the help of butter and some transfiguration under the (chef’s) knife, winter veggies can go from gnarled, knobby ducklings to supper-table swans.